Stardust Global Ventures

This evening we had the chance to chat on the phone with Geraldine Wilson, CEO of Truphone. She’s at MacWorld and CES this week, to spread the word about a couple of big announcements. Since we spoke to her together, we’re writing this up together and sharing our thoughts with each other as we share them with you.

Rather than parrot the press releases, here they both are. We already mentioned the Skype integration here:

• TRUPHONE INTRODUCES SKYPE CALLING AND INSTANT MESSAGING TO iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH APPLICATIONS
• TRUPHONE ADDS INSTANT MESSAGING AND TWITTER TO ITS iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH APPLICATIONS

Ken has expressed a bit of dissatisfaction here with regard to Truphone issues. You can read My Disappointment of the Year 2008 - Truphone for Ken’s comments.

We’re always looking to learn more about what cutting edge companies are doing, but we also really felt compelled to ask some questions that get to the heart of things. We’re neither podcasting or transcribing our interview. We didn’t record it. We simply took some notes and kept track of our reactions. And we’re sharing those reaction with you here.

We noted that the news announcements are oriented very specifically at iPhone/iPod and we asked about that. Specifically, we asked about these new features and when we’ll see them on other devices using Truphone. We also talked about account support for users with multiple phones and Truphone accounts. And we chatted about Truphone’s organization in general.

Here are some of our thoughts:

Ken: I almost want to use iTruphone to refer to this now. It was clear to me that the company is focused almost solely on the iPhone/iPod. Geraldine said they’re focused on devices that include WiFi and have an app store support. Given the newness and questionable, to me, viability of what I’ve seen in the Blackberry app store (something I just won’t ever bother with), that statement alone narrows the field a lot.

I came away feeling like Truphone is building almost exclusively for the iPhone/iPod, with RIM coming in a distant second, although there’s potential. And what about Nokia? What I wrote down during the call was that it sounds like Nokia just became a third world nation. I don’t think they’re even on the radar or in the game.

Sheryl: Geraldine was really apologetic about the struggles Ken and I have had in our experience with Truphone and was quite insistent that they are working very hard to get it right. Their goal, as you would expect, seems to be to make sure their existing customers have a good experience. She also said that they are working to make it possible to have one account that would work from whatever device you would be on.

Part of what I got from this conversation has to do with the fact that they are reorganizing their company. With that Truphone no longer will have a specific presence in the conference circuit. PR is still being handled by Comunicano but Geraldine, James Tagg, and others will share the conference duties, each attending what makes sense for them.

Our Overall Reaction: Truphone is more focused than we’ve seen them before, but almost entirely focused on the iPhone/iPod market right now. Geraldine also made it clear that Truphone sees more users in that audience than any other. And given that, they offered us access to start testing and playing with the new stuff coming out next week. We won’t release any early information, but we will have more to say after we’ve done some testing ourselves.

Technorati Tags: Truphone, Sheryl Breuker, Ken Camp, interview, Geraldine Wilson

Someone we deem a great friend is joining the active blogging community. We’d like to extend a warm welcome to our pal James Body.

Welcome James. It’s great to see you jumping into the waters here. We especially appreciate that you’re one of our friends who has no qualms about being outspoken or asking hard questions.

We look forward to seeing a lot more of you online!

Technorati Tags: James Body, telepocalyptic

Yesterday I saw this post, and didn’t take the time to respond in any way. Sheryl pointed it out this morning, and I feel like I’m compelled to say something because someone I like and respect. Doc Searls, seems to be slipping from the train.

Facebook is The BorgMuch of the activity that used to happen out in the wild unfettered Net, over email, open (XMPP-based) IM and blog posts is now happening inside the Facebook silo. It is AOL 2.0.

I avoid the place, but that’s getting harder. On this current visit I see 7 friend suggestions, 273 friend requests, 6 event invitations, 5 good karma from debo requests, 1 good karma request, 220 other requests, 4 new updates, 235 items in my inbox, 7 pokes and 522 friends to start with.

[Read Doc's full post]

I find this post troubling at best. Maybe because it comes from someone who penned this:

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

That’s right from the Cluetrain. It’s from the 95 Theses page.

While we all argue that Facebook could and should be more open, Doc’s been resistant to embracing the conversation and community that’s grown so active there. I’d say Doc just doesn’t get Facebook and what happens there. To liken it to AOL by calling it AOL 2.0, is to shout “I don’t get it” out loud.

AOL epitomized the walled garden. They should have patented it. And Facebook, began as a closed garden, but not a walled one. But in resisting forwarding thinking and embracing emerging social networking technologies, Doc’s missed the boat in a couple of ways.

I glanced over the 95 Theses and thought about Facebook and see a mesh that would lead me to say Facebook very nearly supports and in many ways embodies the spirit of those points.

Let me be clear, Doc is an absolute social networker par excellence. Take a look at Flickr. Read his blog and note how often he shares his adventures with “the kid” and it’s immediately clear that Doc is likeable, loves to talk and loves interaction.

Doc and I have been friends on Facebook for a long time. He has over 500 friends there, a couple hundred more than I, but I’m very picky and selective about adding friends. Interaction and engagement are big requirements I have, and they’re becoming stronger demands I place on friends online.

Social networking requires engagement and conversation; not every day, but it’s the essence of social networking. Networking to dip your cup and scoop out little bits of information is, to me, different that social networking. Facebook and Twitter are my two primary social networking homes, with others coming and going based on interest and liveliness.

And while Doc made the flawed AOL 2.0 analogy, looking at his stuff on Facebook, I see FriendFeed dribbling in. That’s something that could never penetrate the old AOL walled garden.

Doc uses Facebook, but hadn’t drunk deeply from the fountain of collaboration, networking and sharing that’s there.

So I’m intervening and will post this on Stardust, but I’m also going to post it as a note and tag Doc. That’s part of Facebook’s charm. And isn’t tagging someone in a note there akin to trackback pings in the old blogosphere?

Jump back up on the ‘train here Doc. Grab ahold and come for a ride. It’s a helluva ride and just the sort of thing you can really get your hooks into. Give it a chance.

And if you’re game, why not do a podcast call with Sheryl and I and we’ll talk about it to share the experience with the rest of the world?

Technorati Tags: Doc Searls, social networking, social media, Facebook

So first the news, then my comments. And the press release is below.

Truphone is keeping with their tradition of innovation and kicking off the new year with a new Skype feature that will allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to make calls and instant message other Skype users. All you need is a Truphone account.

I’ve given Truphone a mixed set of reviews lately. I’m posting this notice early in the day, but Sheryl and I will be speaking with Truphone CEO, Geraldine Wilson later in the evening. We have some questions that need answering, and at this point, I for one, remain a bit skeptical about Truphone’s ability to deliver. And we may throw a curve ball or two Geraldine’s way on the phone, but we promise to play fair. We might play hardball, but fair hardball. Rest assured we’ll post some follow up after that conversation.

This is interesting news to say the least and I’ll be really anxious to see it working on my iPod Touch. Given that nothing from Truphone has worked on my iPod so far, it will make for an interesting test.

TRUPHONE INTRODUCES SKYPE CALLING AND INSTANT MESSAGING TO iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH APPLICATIONS

London and San Francisco–Jan. 6, 2009—Truphone today debuted the ability to make and receive Skype™ calls and instant messaging (IM) to the entire Skype user base from its iPhone™ and iPod touch™ applications. The service is scheduled to be available to all customers during the week of Jan. 12.

The introduction was made at “ShowStoppers @ Macworld 2009” and will be showcased at the Truphone stand (#3228) at Macworld for the remainder of the week.

This represents one more step toward making Truphone the open “all-in-one conversations hub” for iPhone and iPod touch users.

Truphone customers on both Apple devices can now reach their Skype friends via their Skype IDs. This further expands the universe of people with whom Truphone customers can stay in touch.

Separately, Truphone also announced today the availability of well-known instant-messaging services using the Truphone application on the iPod touch™ and the iPhone™.

“The introduction of Skype calling and instant messaging represents yet another breakthrough for Truphone,” said Geraldine Wilson, Truphone CEO. “What this means for Truphone’s customers is that they can now call or message all their Skype friends using their iPhone or iPod touch. This allows iPhone and iPod touch users to have a choice in how they stay in touch with friends and colleagues around the world—all within the one application.”

Truphone-to-Skype communications are free over the Internet, and iPhone users can also place and receive Skype calls and messages when not in a Wi-Fi-accessible location for the cost of a local call*, using the Truphone Anywhere feature.

* Operator roaming charges will apply if users are abroad.

# # #

Apple and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the United States and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. Skype is a registered trademark of Skype Limited. In the United States and/or other countries.Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Truphone is a trademark of Software Cellular Network Ltd. Skype and SkypeIn are trademarks of Skype Limited. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

Technorati Tags: Truphone, Skype, Blackberry, iPod Touch, mobility

We just had a fabulous call with many of the industry leaders in Voice over IP communications. Far more than we expected to attend showed up to express their answers to the question whether VoIP is of any concern at all or just a dying, unimportant technology that we use without thought.

While the crowd was a little raucous at times, in general it was a well mannered group. I didn’t have to take anyone to task for bad behavior, thankfully!

We hope this ends the topic and we can all move forward feeling a little more enlightened.

On the call:

I’d just like to thank everyone, again, for their support and involvement in this call. Thanks also to Alec saunders, Founder and CEO of iotum, the company that makes the calliflower conferencing application. This was the application we used to have this particular call.

Listen to the podcast! VoIP: Dead or Alive?

Technorati Tags: calliflower, alec saunders, ken camp, dan york, dameon welch-abernathy, andy abramson, sheryl breuker

Just an update to remind everyone that there is an exciting calliflower conference call taking place this evening at 6 pm PST for the VoIP community. A link to the call is here and is already filling up nicely.

As the host of the call, I would like to say I look forward to the opportunity to listen and learn from the leaders of the VoIP community. This should be fantastic!

If you don’t have a facebook account and would still like to join in, please go to the calliflower website, create an account with them and add yourself to the call.

See you all tonight.

~ S

Technorati Tags: calliflower, voip, facebook,

Note: One of the comments on this particular post point out that another person also had written a post pointing out the obvious lack of web savvy by the local news stations. Here is a link to that post.

I use twitter very actively and I believe in Social communications across the board. Due to a recent barrage of local, Spokane Wa., followers of my twitter account, I stumbled across the web services of our local news teams. We have 4 network affiliates. Krem2 - CBS,  KXLY4 - ABC, KHQ6 - NBC, KAYU28 - FOX.

Out of almost a sense of obligation I wanted to follow my local news teams for up to date weather, largely because we’ve made national weather and the weather has been bad around here so far this year. What I learned was a little distressing because in todays web world I expect my news teams to have a clue about what’s going on in the world of technology.

First thing I learned, there is only one news person of any ilk paying even slight attention to anything on twitter. He is the Gadget Guy from KXLY tv. I don’t want to get into my opinion of what he’s doing, suffice to say I know a lot of people a lot more gadget savvy than he is.

The heart of the problem for me was how web 1.0 these TV stations present themselves. It’s disgraceful! My award for absolute WORST website of all of them is KHQ, which is hardly surprising when you consider they have no representation in the socnet arena at all. None. Probably the best represented with less clutter was KAYU.

What makes KHQ a 1.0 website you ask and what does that even mean? Several things.

First, one of the things that happens when you land on their site is a pop up ad. I didn’t think those were even done anymore. That has got to be one of the single most annoying things anyone EVER decided was a good idea. And their ad is particulalrly intrusive.

Second, all the sites have ads, but KHQ has the most ads and the most clutter.

Third, a website should be easy to navigate, have a list of headlines, archived pages for reference and not a lot of stuff to distract. People are easily annoyed with all the garbage they have to wade through. KHQ, again, hasn’t figured out how to limit the number of things on a page and only have the TOP stories there in an easy to navigate site.

To be fair, none of the websites were great at their design. Here’s a quote from my partner, Ken Camp:

In the Internet world, brands and advertising are at much greater risk. The real estate available to work with is typically something around 1280 pixels high and 800 pixels wide (or thereabouts). But the attention span of an Internet user may be slightly shorter than that of a flea (at least speaking for myself).

Misuse our time on the Internet, and your life can be ended with one click. One click and you’re history. Two clicks, and you can be blocked into the abyss forever; your message buried and forgotten for all time.

Something that bothers me about the way our local media is connecting with, and representing their TV Stations to, the community can be summed up by another quote from an earlier post here:

I can’t count the number of times I’ve talked about the human social need to form communities. Twitter is such a community. The strength and value comes from people.

When people represent a brand, like RichardatDELL for example, good things happen. Richard has brought a human face to Dell because he engages as a person. As an individual, Richard reads, follows, engages in conversation and participates in the community. People add value.

I think one of the most important aspects of the engagement we see in the social networking communities today, whether they be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or some other place, is that people are truly connecting with people. The power of the Internet lies in people. It hasn’t been that long ago that the marketing buzz/hype was all about content. Many of the carriers still believe content is king, and are trying to find a way to monetize content. They are doomed to fail.

All these news people, brands, etc pretending to engage with ‘us’ in social media like twitter, might as well not bother rather than throw up a site that isn’t engaging, or putting up a dummy account on twitter where no engagement happens at all.

One thing Ken and I try to explain to people all the time is how important engagement is. A Television station who suggests to it’s employees that someone put an account online so they have presence is sorely mistaken if they think that gets them brownie points with anyone. It doesn’t.

I’d love to do an interview with the chief conversation officer or director in charge of social media engagement at these local stations. The problem I see is that they appear not to have one. How archaic.

Technorati Tags: KHQ, KREM, KXLY, KAYU, Gadget Guy, johnny5, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, twitter

There’s a nightmare running in my brain that’s really bothering me. The best way to make the frightening visions in by head subside is to talk about it here, so hang on dear readers.

The most recent fodder for this particular topic is my good friend Andy’s Scouting Report: The Players to Pick To Build & Grow A 2.0 Telco/Carrier/Service Provider. That led to my response in Andy’s Picks for 2.0 Telco/Carrier/Service, but this is something bigger.

In tandem with the whole VoIP is Dead/Alive meme that’s circulating (see my Speaking the Unspeakable - VoIP and Sheryl’s Open Invitation to VoIP: Dead or Alive), this subject tracks back farther. A few weeks ago I wrote Extinction Events Don’t Just Hit the Yucatán Peninsula, but that’s not the beginning of this for me. It’s not the beginning of this for anyone.

I can easily trace my own thinking on this subject back through the dot com bubble bursting, but if I think hard enough, my own conscious thinking about this date to the 80s. If we need a specific date, I’ll say August 5, 1983 when Judge Harold Greene signed the final consent decree to break up the old Bell System.

I’ve been involved in Internet activity for a long time. Since before we called it the Internet. I’ve been involved in telecommuncations since 1980, and paid my dues at the University of Alexander Graham with Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, then AT&T, then Lucent Technologies. I’ve hoed a row or two down that field.

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of talk, far too much talk, about the concept of Telco 2.0 and it’s driving me a bit insane. The constructs of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are fabrications of software writers (and sellers) and simply don’t exist. Telco 1.0 was represented by the logo above and it died 25 years ago. And on that day I remember observing to a colleague that the elephant had been shot, but it would run a long way before it realized it was dead and feel over. it’s still running, but it’s dead.

I find the idea of Telco 2.0 an anathema to good business sense. I know the carriers all want to be Telco 2.0, but why? If I extend my Yucatan event analogy a bit, the Mastadon was simply Elephant 1.0. It’s gone and pretty much forgotten, but why on earth would you aim to become Elephant 2.0, the pachyderm that’s shrinking in population today? To what end? Why would you aim to become a slow, lumbering beast of burden that’s faced with extinction on the horizon?

I’ll posit that the very concept of Telco 2.0 is flawed at its core and such an enterprise can never exist. I think my dear friend Moshe Maeir agreed with me today when he wrote Can you teach a telecom guy - software based communications?

I will speculate that there will never be a Telco 2.0 It cannot come into being because its time is already past, by 20 years. Telco 2.0 would predate the Internet dot com bubble burst.

I think that’s why I balked at Andy’s idea of the talented roster of guys he picked as draft picks for the Telco 2.0 All Stars. I absolutely agree about the talent, even genius of the people he mentioned. But to put them into the already extinct construct of a Telco 2.0 fabrication would be to consign them to the seventh level of hell (or deeper).

There’s a company I won’t name, but it’s a company that Sheryl and I are beginning some work with. We’re optimistic about where that work will lead and how we can help them. In some ways they come from the distant past. Their language is filled with acronyms reminiscent of the ice age (ILEC, IXC, CLEC, etc.). I mention this for a reason. They are most decidely not a telco. Some of their employess might think they are, but they’re wrong. Even to their roots, this company is not a telco. Some of their leadership team has some telco history, but we’ll forgive that because they are not clinging to the past, but rather looking to the future.

Moshe asked if you can teach a telecom guy software based communications. It’s an interesting question, but it makes me wonder why you’d want to in the first place. Can you teach the hardware and software guy that neither works without the other? To succeed in the Internet Communications Continuum you really need to look at the solutions you deliver and even thinking in terms of unified communications is backwards thinking? That’s right, the guy who’s been writing about unified communications for the past few years just called it backwards thinking.

Jeff nailed it most accurately the other day when he used the term Internet Communications Continuum in a post. There’s a difference between a continuum and a timeline. In the continuum, the incremental time elements don’t matter. In the continuum we’re talking about the evolution from Bell System to telecom to unified communications to the future was distrupted by something we now call social media. Social media is a bigger disrupter than any technology I’ve seen in my 55 years, but I’m not sure we all get that just yet.

One of the best descriptions of social media I’ve seen anywhere comes from AN iCrossing eBook entitled What is Social Media? It says:

Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

• Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.
• Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content – password-protected content is frowned on.
• Conversation: whereas traditional media is about “broadcast? (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.
• Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.
• Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.

Five words that do not describe telecommunications or the telecom industry - Participation, Openness, Conversation, Community and Connectedness. The industry, the whole construct of that framework is to control four of those by ensuring there is no community in the first place. To embrace community is not to become Telco 2.0, but to create something entirely new.

Sheryl and I are at the edge of something new, and it’s earthshaking. I’ve said many times the dinosaurs have died. I’ll repeat that the dinosaurs are dead. In the physical world, they aren’t only dead, we’ve just about extracted all the fossil fuel we’ll ever suck out of the planet. In the field of communications, we’re just now dipping in a straw to begin draining the value they quit adding to human communications of very long ago. It’s time to feed on the dead carcasses of those ancients who no longer roam the earth. And just as a coecelanth is an irrelevant relative of the dinosaurs that still exists, it’s time to recognize that the entire construct we call a Telco is simply not relevant to society, business or the world today.

Those companies aiming to become Telco 2.0 are already doomed because the worst thing that can happen to them is to hit the mark. Imagine the agony of working to achieve prehistoric ignominy and defeat at the jaws of a fierce new predator that’s smaller, faster, more adaptable and built to evolve.

The Next Generation Company in the Internet Communications Continmuum is out there. There’s more than one. They’re young in spirit, but old in wisdom. I’ve talked about some of them before. They aren’t in the Fortune 100. They aren’t in the Fortune 500. And beyond that, they aren’t focused on getting there or serving that market.  They’re the technology leaders of the “Unfortunate 5 Million” who look at the real world market, and they’re gaining momentum.

What would you call them? I won’t insult them by thinking in terms of Telco 2.0. I won’t call them unified communications companies, because that’s too limiting. They aren’t social media companies because they simply embrace social media as a way to participate in the global economy of the information age.

They’re the next generation connectors. Connecting people and resources. They’re builders. They’re future thinkers. They assimilate, aggregate and deliver. And we know how to help them. It’s time for some holistic medicine in creating this new industry. In telecommunications and networking we have been our own worst enemies long enough. It’s time to quit carrying those flawed, narrow constructs along and think in new terms.

Technorati Tags: Andy Abramson, Jeff Pulver, Moshe Maeir, Telco 2.0, telecommuncations, dinosaurs, Bell System, Internet Communications Continuum, scoail media, unified communications, There is no Telco 2.0, There can never be Telco 2.0 , It’s time for something new

I got a note from pal Andy Abramson earlier about this and didn’t have a chance to comment or post until now.

Scouting Report: The Players to Pick To Build & Grow A 2.0 Telco/Carrier/Service Provider

If you’re a company like AT&T or BT, Telstra or DT you start to look around and say, “in times like these…… what can we do to be better tomorrow.”

That means you look inside, assess who’s on First, and What’s on Second, then look outside and say, who should I hire to make my company better and stronger and ready for 2.0. Given my history in pro sports, and having actually run a draft in my early days and staged some draft day events, I figured it would be fun to look at the players and figure out what’s ahead. Some are sleepers, meaning you would expect others to be listed ahead of them. Others are known quantities who have the chops to stand out in a crowd, but as a GM trained team builder one has to look past the usual suspects and find the gems in the draft. That’s what makes teams champions, not only winners.
[Read Andy's picks]

Ok, we don’t know everyone on the list personally, but certainly most.

While I have a great deal of respect for Andy’s business acumen and thought leadership, I have something he doesn’t have - a history in the telco industry. It could well be that I just don’t quite get where Andy’s coming from, so my reaction may be well off base.I think these guys are some of the best and brightest I have ever encountered in my career, but with perhaps one notable exception, I don’t see the fit in the terms I’m thinking.

I think Andy picked a territory bigger than Texas when he said Telco/Carrier/Service Provider, and I spent one career in that environment. In my career at AT&T/Lucent Technologies, as one cog in the wheel with a quarter million employees, in a strategic management role, I learned just what impact an individual really has in that universe.

Martin Geddes, is without equal in my mind. He should be in the senior management team of a major Telco/Carrier/Service Provider unquestionably. I’m not sure he’d be happy there, but the company that can woo him and bring him on board, then hold him long enough to benefit from his wisdom will have a winning startegy. No question about it.

The other guys are people I can’t imagine wanting or accepting, or being remotely interested in that sort of working environment. They’re nimble innovators who want change, responsiveness and things the culture of  the Telco/Carrier/Service Provider enterprise can never provide. It’s not in their corporate DNA any more than it is of the failing automakers.

I agree completely that these guys should all be trusted advisors, and senior managers in key positions, but I think they’d all feel stifled. And I know how long it takes to win a battle in that world. I don’t think they’d want to stick around long enough to facilitate the necessary change. Changing a telco mentality only takes two generations.

I think if these guys had any interest in that environment, they’d be working there. If Alec Saunders wanted to be running that scale of a business, I think he’d be at Microsot running their OCS strategy today. I could be wrong, but I’ll ask him next time we chat.

Knowing most of those guys, I’d hate to see them deal with the political infighting and power plays that go in in any business of that scale. I think they’d hate it, but that’s just me. I know I hated it, and when invited back into that world, I’vestayed on the periphery where there’s real conversation, real innovation, and things get done that impact how services are delivered.

What I think Andy has identifed is a brain trust of wisdom, innovation and forward thinking the likes of which the communications industry has never seen or listened to. Think of this as an uparalleled consortium of genius, and I agree with Andy every step of the way.

Technorati Tags: Telco, Carrier, Service Provider, unified communications, telecommunications, Andy Abramson

I’d like to invite all our readers to a free conference call I’m hosting on Monday night at 6pm pacific. The call, spurred on by all the recent discussions on VoIP, will take place via Calliflower conferencing application available on facebook or on the web.

If you go to calliflower you can create a free account and receive a call in number. The web experience really is best, with the ability to participate in wall comments etc.

Join me, Sheryl Breuker, as my partner Ken Camp joins several other VoIP leaders to talk about why the VoIP discussion has gotten so heated now. The discussion should be lively and informative.

See you then!

Technorati Tags: calliflower, Ken Camp, Sheryl Breuker, VoIP, facebook

Ok, so here’s a post that caught my eye earlier about CES:

Ballmer’s CES Keynote Promises To Be A Snoozer (Non-Announcements Revealed!)

The annual Consumer Electronics Show is going to be so boring this year that even Bill Gates is not showing up. He gave his farewell keynote (and his 13th) last year. This year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will try to rouse the crowd.

Ballmer is a high-energy guy who can be entertaining to watch, but Microsoft just doesn’t have anything exciting to announce this year. (Who does, right?). When Ballmer takes the stage at the Venetian in Las Vegas on Wednesday night it is going to be hard for the audience
to stay awake no matter how much he yells at them.

[Read the how TechCrunch post]

Ballmer entertaining to watch? Well if you like meltdown and insanity, I suppose. In my experience, if Ballmer’s on stage, I’ll read about it later and get a nutshell synopsis rather than listing to his rantings and ravings. He’s one of the most appalling speakers I’ve ever heard and someone I go out of my way to not listen to live.

For me, there’s a couple of thoughts that stand out here.

We had hoped to get to CES for a couple of reasons. The past few years it’s been a whopper of a show, and we thought it would be nice to step into the CES space with GeekSpeakTV and do some interviews and test/explore some of the new gadgets coming.

Also,our good friend Jeff Pulver is running Social Media Jungle @ CES 2009. When we had dinner with Jeff in Minneapolis a couple of months ago, we were really jazzed at the prospect of speaking at this new conference series Jeff is kicking off. Unfortunately, schedule and finances just make it impossible for us to be there.

I’m not sure how Sheryl feels, but for me CES feels like it’s becoming a big non-event in many ways. I think it’s going to be a sleeper for news, so maybe it’s appropriate that the keynote be a yawn-fest too. I wish we could find a way to go for a single day to get to the Social Media Jungle, but I’m not sure I’d even be inclined to deal with any of the CES madness.

How about you? Are you going? Why? What do you think will come out of the event that’s important, newsworthy or notable?

And given the state of conferences in general, how many more times do you think CES will run before they too join the legacy past of conferences that once were the center of all news?

Technorati Tags: CES, Jeff Pulver, Social Media Jungle, conferences

I recently acquired a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic through my mom Sheryl, her fiancé Ken, and their friend Andy. I acquired this phone from my mom, on one condition. That condition being that I would write a review for the phone, so here I am.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is according to other reviews quite an astonishing phone, as far as Nokia and Music go together, from what I’ve read. I personally, have used it more for texting - as any adolescent teenager would in today’s world - as well as wifi, and picture taking combined with picture uploading.

I’m certain that I’m not the first to say it, and I’m sure I won’t be the last, but I love this phone over-all. I’ve had use of two other Nokia phones through Mom and Ken, the Nokia N73, and the Nokia N78, prior to this 5800, and neither one of them was as “fun” or “cool” as this one.

The phone has a very convenient stylus, but, it’s not a requirement. You can use the touch screen with just the tip of your fingers. However, I do recommend that if you use such a primitive tool as your own finger, you wash your hands, or have a screen cleaner and rag available, to keep the grease build up down.

For the generic, but dying technology of basic phone calls, this phone is adequate, with an easy-to-use volume control button on the side of the phone, and easily operated touch-screen buttons for your various answering options.

As for dialing a phone number, well the touch pad is a little confusing at first, because the keys are small, and the touch pad can be a bit slow to catch on to the fact that you’ve actually keyed in a digit, but if you’re using the stylus you won’t likely notice the difference. If you’re going to just call a contact it’s not too hard to scroll through a list and select one to call, and which of their potentially many phone numbers to dial.

Texting is quite fun here actually. You may either manually input the number you wish to text by tapping the Recipient area once firmly with your finger or stylus and inputting the number with the number pad, or you may add a number or multiple numbers from your contact list. As for the actual message? Well, it’s similar to manually inputting a number to text: tap the text area firmly once, and the key-pad appears. You now have to turn your phone side-ways and decide whether to use the stylus, or whether to type with your thumbs. My personal choice for speed, and amusement is using my thumbs, but if I want a higher degree of accuracy, I’ll pull out the stylus for the search-and-peck method of typing. Then just hit the check-mark, click the closed envelope which is the send button, and you’re done.

So, the texting bit also touches on the fact that there’s more than one way to view the phone. You can look at it vertically as you would most, or you can flip it on its side and it will act similarly to the iPhone or iPod Touch, I believe, and rotate the icons. Of course, this only seems to work once you’ve opened one of the menus. The unfortunate thing, is that on your main wallpaper, this option is not apparently available. You can put your favorite contacts onto the wallpaper, but you can’t have them rotate with your phone like when you’re in the main menus.

As this is the first phone I’ve ever honestly used to access wifi, I can’t exactly make any unbiased comments on the speed, though I’ll make a comment anyway. Speed can always be improved.

The phone does a pretty good job of playing YouTube videos, and the sound quality is surprisingly exceptional, as is the volume capability. The video quality could be better, but we’re looking at 640×360 pixels so in all honesty you can’t ask for much better than you’ve got.

Moving on to photos: There is a 3.2 megapixel camera on this phone. Once again, when you take into account the size of the lens, the photo quality of the camera is really surprisingly exceptional. You won’t be taking any professional grade photos, to include in a photographer’s portfolio, but certainly adequate for on-the-fly captures of moments that just need a picture to be able to describe them. And when you’ve gone and taken a picture, if you have wifi, and a flickr account, you can upload photos right from your phone to your flickr account, fairly quickly.

Music quality on the phone is exceptional, as I stated in my comments about YouTube with this phone. The volume reaches surprising levels for such a small device, and the quality is not terribly distorted as it would be with a lower-end phone.
The transfer speed from computer to phone through your USB connection is also great. I didn’t know the exact specification, so I looked it up, and it is advertised at 4mb/s transfer rate.

The music application includes ability to make on the go playlists, and organize your songs in different ways.
The one downfall is that you either have to manually input the music files by accessing your phone memory or memory card on “My Computer” and drag-and-drop the music into the phone memory, or you have to use Windows Media Player to synchronize songs - that is unless, my phone and computer combination just don’t optimize transferring capabilities.

On a whole, I have to reiterate that I love the Nokia 5800. There is however room for improvement, including more options for what to include on your wallpaper, as far as icons go, perhaps, since it’s the Nokia 5800 “XpressMusic” a music icon should be included. And then there’s the potential for improving wifi speed. To go along the subject of speed, the touch-pad needs to be improved so that your touches register a little bit faster and easier, rather than having to almost hit the screen at times. The last thing I think needs to be improved would be not the transfer speed, but the ease of transferring, and program compatibility for transferring music and sound data. But all in all, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic lives up to its name, and is a magnificent, and amusing phone.

A couple of days I ago I said I was finished talking about VoIP. I meant it then, and I mean it now, but there’s been enough flailing about that I feel compelled to rant.

For a starting point, see VoIP - Is it dead or alive? Or simply boring? .

Friends and colleagues around the industry seem driven to talk about VoIP incessantly. I’m not, and I don’t think they are either, so I’m calling bullshit on a bunch of esteemed friends and colleagues. Doing so because I said:

And I’ll toss in a New Year’s resolution of sorts from Ken this time around. If you want to talk about VoIP, regardless of which side you shake out on, unless you’re really talking about service of some kind that adds value, don’t engage me. I’m not interested. You’re boring me. And if you’re really talking about services and couching it in VoIP terms because you think it will get you visibility or attention, I’ll probably call bullshit on you freely and openly.

2009 - No bullshit. No VoIP. Be real and create real solutions for communications.

I’ll call some friends out directly and by name, and pose an invitation. Or perhaps a challenge.

Alec Saunders of the “VoIP is dead” side of the conversation wrote 2008: The Year that VoIP died, which he then followed up with VoIP: “If you hadn’t nailed its feet to the perch, it’d be pushin’ up the daisies!”. I know Alec is kiddingly referring to this a the “VoIP fire” and I expect him to pour a little more gasoline today, perhaps even before I get this posted.

I’d offer that Alec isn’t really arguing that VoIP is dead. He knows how widespread it is. He notes the failure of VoIP pure play companies, but pure play in an sector is risky and I think we can pick just about any piece of the industry and find plenty of pure plays that have failed. Niche solutions don’t have the breadth required for sustainability in many cases. Alec moves from that thread to talking about what are mashups or converged successes that operate around VoIP - not pure plays, but integration plays.

Jeff Pulver wrote that VoIP is NOT Dead!, saying that “the promise of VoIP is alive and well and living in the hearts of many people who believe in the future of innovation in communications.” Jeff quickly moves into the contunuum of the IP communications industry. And he asks how many declaring VoIP dead were actually involved in the industry when he introduced the concept of “purple minutes” to which I look around and easily say all of us.

Jeff’s real focus, in his own words, is on the “promise of IP Communications” that’s a whole lot bigger and more tangible than VoIP.

Then we’ve got a couple of my brightest friends chiming in as well. Dameon Welch-Abernathy (aka Phoneboy) says in VoIP: OUT for 2009 that he agrees there’s innovation going on in VoIP (agreeing with Jeff Pulver, Andy Abramson, and Jon Arnold. But he immediately follows with “However, those innovations are services. Companies like Fonolo, Jajah, Mobivox, iotum (makers of Calliflower), and others are using technology that has existed for years in new and exciting ways.“

Dameon summed it up nicely - Normal people don’t care abut VoIP.

Amen brother! Preach it.

Then there’s Ted Wallingford. I’ll tell you I think Ted’s the Rodney Dangerfield of unified communications. He’s so busy working with his head down and nose to the grindstone - doing real work in the real world - that he doesn’t get the respect he deserves for the wisdom and balance he brings to our industry. He gave us 10 points about the death of Voice over IP and the followed up a day later with Those with VoIP’s blood on their hands….

I’ll summarize the home run point of this in a simple statement from Ted - “in this neck of the woods, something is dead when people quit talking about it.“

So who’s talking about VoIP? Really? Alec, Jeff, and a bunch of us inside and on the periphery of the industry in a huge freaking echo chamber. And we (yes, I include me, and shame on me for writing about this bullshit again) aren’t adding value in any way. We’re quibbling over semantics. We’re beating a dead horse and listening to the wind blow while we flap are own jaws.

I have to say it again:

So guys, bullshit on you. And on me. We’re doing nothing productive by continually using VoIP as a frame of reference. Frankly, I think you’re doing yourself, your customers, and our industry a disservice by trying to frame the conversation around VoIP. You’re bullshitting yourselves and everyone else if you think VoIP, as a protocol, as a transport mechanism, or even as a service, is the core value proposition that’s going to help ANY business win in 2009. It’s nothing but a fringe piece of the communications issue. Yes it’s vital to unifying communications, but you know what? That’s been done. And all we’re seeing now is incremental, unexciting change. And trying to whip up a frenzy by declaring VoIP dead or a live is just plain bullshit.

Sheryl and I talked about this, so we’re extending an invitation. We’re going to host a, open, public conference call on Calliflower on Monday evening, January 5th at 6PM Pacific time. You’re all invited. I mean ALL of you. Anyone who’s interested. The whole Internet is invited. You’re all impacted. We’ll send personal invitations to the people mentioned in this post, but everyone is invited to listen in. We’ll be sending lots of Facebook invitations. It could be a lively conversation. And we’ll ppost it here as a podcast afterwards for those who can’t make it live.

This call will be some simple questions, and my esteemed colleagues will get a chance to answer. Sheryl will moderate the call. Here are the questions:

1. Do you truly and honestly believe VoIP is a vital, growing technology that’s of any interest to customers?
2. In ten words or less, what do you think the single hottest niche segment within the unified communications space is for 2009? Depending how many we get, we may discuss these in more detail, because I think this is where the meat of the conversation we’re circling around lies.
3. In ten words or less, what do you think is the single most talked about but unlikely to drive real change and innovation technology in 2009? Where do you think time, effort and money are being wasted?
4. What one company or service do you think will take the industry by storm in 2009?
5. What one spectacular flameout do you think is coming in the industry in 2009?

We’ll address three of those five questions. As the moderator, Sheryl will decide which three.

One more time:

Game on!

VoIP: Dead or Alive? http://apps.facebook.com/calliflower/conf/show/43921

Technorati Tags: Alec Saunders, Jeff Pulver, Dameon Welch-Abernathy, Phoneboy, Ted Wallingford, VoIP, unified communications, kicking a dead horse.

Ken and Ted Wallingford have been friends and colleagues for a number of years. Ted was one of Ken’s compadres in an effort a couple of years back called the VoIP ThinkTank. It was a round table podcast series with some of the thought leaders of VoIP before we all began to focus more broadly in the field of unified communications.Sheryl and Ted are newer friends.

For those of you who don’t know or read Ted, you should. He’s one of the brightest guys we know, and an esteemed O’Reilly book author who really knows his stuff. And, he’s one of the downright nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Plays a mean drum riff too.

Tonight we picked up a post on Ted’s blog mentioning us, and felt deeply honored. Ted included us in his list of favorite blogs for 2008. Here’s what he said:

Ken Camp and Sheryl Breuker.  I’ve been in the Ken Camp camp for years now. Now that Sheryl’s on board with Mr. Camp, they’ve begun leading the way in a movement I expect will become the norm in 2009: VoIP people concentrating on social applications instead of VoIP.  That’s my plan anyway, so I’ll be keeping tabs on Ken and Sheryl.

[Read Ted's post]

Thanks for such a nice honor Ted. We are both touched to be included in that genuinely esteemed group of leading writers, bloggers and thinkers. And we’re sure looking forward to some time face-to-face in 2009.

Technorati Tags: Ted Wallingford, VoIP, unified communications, social media

I’ve been following a thread of conversation that’s got friends on both sides of the major non-question of the year end. Is VoIP dead or alive?

Here are examples from each side, followed by something to back up my views below.

From the dead side, Alec Saunders

2008: The Year that VoIP died

It seems highly likely to me that at some point in the future we’ll all look back and say that 2008 was the year that the VoIP industry finally died.  With all due respect to my very good friends Jon Arnold, and Andy Abramson, it’s about time.

Voice over IP is just a transport and signalling technology. It’s plumbing.  It may come as a surprise to some of you to know that in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s there was a TCP/IP industry as well. TCP/IP is inarguably plumbing.  As the IP stack became common on all computing devices, TCP/IP went from being a differentiator to a commodity.  The short lived TCP/IP industry was a footnote in the events that spawned the global web. The fact that a VoIP industry has existed is a similar historical footnote to the transformation of the communications industry as a whole.  The VoIP industry was a necessary phase in that transformation; John in the wilderness announcing that the real action is still to come.

And what is the evidence that the VoIP industry is at that turning point?

[Read Alec's full post]

And from the alive side of the table, Jeff Pulver

VoIP is NOT Dead!

Today is December 31, 2008 and I find it real interesting some of my friends have declared 2008 as the year that VoIP died.

On the eve of 2009 the promise of VoIP is alive and well and living in the hearts of many people who believe in the future of innovation in communications. Ask many of my friends including: Vint Cert, Henry Sinnreich, Joe Rinde or Daniel Berninger and they would agree with me that one day the vision and the promise of end-to-end IP based communications WILL happen. The Internet communications revolution is STILL happening. In fact, we are living in an Internet Communications Continuum.

[Read Jeff's full post]

And for accuracy in supporting what I’m going to say, here’s my own post from just over a year ago

12/18/2007More on VoIP as Plumbing

My friend and colleague Matt Lambert over at Conversationware posted this yesterday in response to my post A Brief Look at 2007 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s a worthwhile read, and I ose Matt a note of thanks. Unknowingly, it was an email exchange we shared that led me down that line of thinking.

I thought it was worth revisiting this, especially after reading my friends at FierceVoip claiming VoIP crusader recants.  (And a small ego note, it’s Ken Camp, not Champ).

VOIP is just plumbing

More and more it has seemed to me that VOIP doesn’t matter. I don’t see this discussed on mainstream communications news sites, presumably it’s a question of who pays their bills through advertising.

First, I don’t think I’ve recanted much, but I will explain. Second, the plumbing analogy is certainly getting a bit long in the tooth, but this seems a good time to elaborate.

The post on FierceVoIP says

Don’t know if I would call all those edge controllers, QoS monitoring, security systems and media gateways mere plumbing, but I do agree that selling voice as a service rather than a technology is where the market is heading.

‘m not sure I’d either agree or disagree, but what I will say is that infrastructure, whether it’s SBCs and gateways or VoIP in general, isn’t what customers want. I think the FieceVoIP piece actually supports the point I’m making.

VoIP is not disruptive. It’s over ten years old. It isn’t innovative today. VoIP is a tried and true technology. It’s tested and proven. It’s been carrying massive volumes of voice calls for a long time now. It’s almost what I’d call a legacy technology at this point.

The failing of the unified communications industry segment has been that solution providers aren’t selling comprehensive integrated solutions yet. They’re still selling technology widgets. VoIP is a technology widget that is simply part of the established infrastructure. It’s not new. It’s not sexy. It’s not disruptive.

Customers don’t want to buy VoIP any more than they want to buy frame relay. Customers want solutions to business problems. Selling VoIP is still leaving it up to the customer to solve their own problem by peace-mealing together their own suite of solutions.

In 2008, I expect to see more VoIP companies that can’t move off of selling technolgy into designing and selling integrated business solutions fail in the market. That’s right, fail. And they should fail.

Plumbing parts are a commmodity. You can go to Home Depot and buy everything you need to pipe a house. Great for the do-it-yourselfer indeed. But most enterprise businesses, especially in the SMB space, aren’t looking to become DIY voice providers. They’re in a core business and they’re looking for solutions to their business problems.

So a word to the solution providers out there. Think long and hard about how you really integrate technologies to provide comprehensive solutions. Whether you call it Software Oriented Architecture (SOA) or Software as a Service (SaaS), the focus for the year ahead has to be on business solutions for business problems.

Integrating services, voice - video - data, with business applications like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management and Human Resources Management are going to be the really hot focal points in 2008. That’s where the real need is. And to succeed - to thrive - solution providers can’t offer widgets and plumbing and still win business.

So about a year ago, I claimed that VoIP is plumbing. Now let me repeat myself for emphasis:

VoIP is neither alive nor dead. It’s like air or water. It simply is. It’s time to quit kicking that particular dead horse because nobody cares. Yesterday in another post, I likened Cisco to vanilla ice cream - boring.

If Cisco is boring, VoIP conversation has moved down the contunuum to tedious. Yes, tedious. To give credit to my friends and genuinely esteemed colleague on both sides of this debate, you’re picking flyshit our of pepper. Voice services are vital, growing, and important. VoIP is tedious, mundane and debating it is actually a bit of an irritant to many of our readers.

I don’t care if it’s dead or alive. When I wrote IP Telephony Demystified back in 2002, I thought it was hot stuff too. It’s not. And for those of you doubters, think about unified communications. What matters is communications.

2009 is the year of services and customer services. It’s the year of delivering solutions and value. It’s the year of doing things right and delivering what works. It’s not the year of rehashing old protocols that are no more forward looking than copper pipes carrying water in our house.

And I’ll toss in a New Year’s resolution of sorts from Ken this time around. If you want to talk about VoIP, regardless of which side you shake out on, unless you’re really talking about service of some kind that adds value, don’t engage me. I’m not interested. You’re boring me. And if you’re really talking about services and couching it in VoIP terms because you think it will get you visibility or attention, I’ll probably call bullshit on you freely and openly.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, dead or alive, Alec Saunders, Jeff Pulver, Matt Lambert, FierceVoIP, dead or alive, kicking a dead horse, services, voice services, communications, unified communications, Ken Camp